There are many foods that can flare-up or lengthen a viral immune challenge. These foods are high in an amino acid (a normal component of proteins) called Arginine, and usually low in an amino acid called Lysine.
Arginine is not harmful, but if it is consumed in larger quantities than Lysine, it is known to stimulate viral growth. Lysine is suppressive to viral growth—some people even take it in pill form to prevent outbreaks of cold sores, etc. (Our practitioners can determine if Lysine supplements would be helpful in your case, or if other immune support would be more helpful).
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The Anti-Viral Diet
(The following list of anti-viral foods high in Arginine to avoid is a suggestion, and not all of the foods will affect all people).
FOODS TO AVOID:
| Caffeine | Millet | Sesame Seeds |
| Chocolate | Wheat Germ | Macadamia Nuts |
| Pasteurized Dairy Products | Split Peas | Brazil Nuts |
| Sugar | Infant Cereal | Cashews |
| Brussel Sprouts | Almonds | |
| Onions | Almond Butter | |
| Corn | Pecans | |
| Walnuts | ||
| Grains | Peanuts | |
| Brown Rice | Peanut Butter | |
| Soybeans | Sunflower Seeds | |
| Whole Wheat | Pistachios | |
| Oatmeal | Hazelnuts |
*Avoiding sugar means avoiding natural sweeteners such as honey or maple syrup. Two exceptions are Pure Stevia and Monkfruit with no added sweetener like erythritol or other sugar alcohols. No sugar also means no sugary drinks, including fruit juices.
HEALTHY ANTI-VIRAL FOODS TO ENJOY:
| All Meats, Including: | Eggs | Only These Fruits: |
| Beef | Raw Milk Cheese | Avocados |
| Pork | Lemons | |
| Chicken | Most Vegetables, Including: | Limes |
| Turkey | Potatoes | Cranberries |
| Seafood & Shellfish | ||
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You’ll see that there are a lot of nuts and seeds in the AVOID list. There are also three vegetables to avoid: onions, brussels sprouts, and corn. This is because they’re high arginine foods to avoid.
As with any immune challenge, limiting SUGAR is essential to strengthening your immune system and speeding up recovery. Sugar feeds all the bugs: viruses, bacteria, fungus, and parasites.
The Anti-Viral Diet is very powerful, and is more important than any supplements, herbs, or drugs in your quest for improved health (although done in conjunction with anti-viral, food-based supplements, you’ll have quite a potent healing combination).
There was a woman who was a patient of mine back in 2008, and her stomach was very sensitive; she couldn’t take any pills. She would get dizzy often, and that dizziness would sometimes turn into vertigo (dizziness is sort of being off balance, whereas vertigo is like the earth is repeatedly flipping you upside down). I found a viral immune challenge in her stomach and in her ears with the biofeedback technique we use. She couldn’t take my supplement pills due to her poor functioning stomach. I put her on the Anti-Viral Diet, and within four months she was extremely happy—her symptoms were gone! She was well, she was better: it was fantastic. She stopped coming in for appointments, but I ran into her a few years later at the grocery store and she said she was still doing the diet (it isn’t always a requirement that you do it forever!), she was still doing well, and her symptoms had not come back.
Viruses can cause all types of weird symptoms: skin rashes, fatigue… the virus can be stuck in an organ, causing the organ to cause the symptoms that that organ causes. We use the Anti-Viral Diet all the time at the office and get people better by its use quite often, so we’re big fans of it.
So if you feel like you’re not getting to the cause of your fatigue or depression or something like that and you think it might be a virus, you can do blood tests. You can run panels for these strange viruses, viruses called retroviruses, which stay in your body for a long period of time and cause trouble the whole time, though they might lay relatively dormant or your symptoms might be less or nonexistent for periods of time. Epstein-Barr virus is an example of that. Cytomegalovirus is another.
It typically takes many months to knock the viruses out.
One of the kickers about viruses is they live in your cells, whereas bacteria and fungus and parasites live around your cells. If you’re on anti-viral supplements, drugs, or herbs, and you’re doing the Anti-Viral Diet, and let’s say the virus is in your heart or in your brain or in your liver, it may take four months or it may take six months or it may take a year—but this virus might very well have been hiding in your body for years, flaring up from time to time, making you sick, causing problems. That’s why this is important.
So there’s the tool. Now you have it.
Dr. Darren Schmidt
